South African Blackjack Casinos

Gambling is a thriving hobby in South Africa. Studies show that the country sees as much as 86.9 percent participation from the various forms of legalized games they run. This includes the lottery, scratch cards and horse racing. In fact, the country reported earning 13.52 billion Rand (about $1.34 billion USD) in 2006/2007.

So comes as no surprise that South African residents like to gamble online. Unfortunately for them, the country has passed laws that prohibit residents from gambling online and operators from accepting customers from within the country.

In despite of this, casinos still operate in the country and allow residents to sign up and play for real money. The laws do make this harder, though, and thin out the herd in terms of what casinos are available, let alone the ones worth signing up to.

Bearing this in mind we decided to do the legwork for you. We’ve already researched and found the best blackjack casinos for South African players. You can take your pick from the list below.

Online gambling is illegal, but at the same time, you wouldn’t know it. Casinos still operate in the country and the people still play.

But the South African government has made it clear where they stand on the issue — at least for the time being.. They passed gambling laws in the past, later revised them in 2004 and 2008 to cover internet gambling, which was booming at those times.

In 2004 revisions were made to the National Gambling Act (NGA) to prohibit any interactive gaming. This covered everything from video game to online gambling operators.

4 years later there was an attempt to change the bill to legalize online gambling. However, the attempts didn’t pan out and a couple of years later online casino providers were banned entirely. Even those with servers located outside the country. The penalties are harsh, too, at 10 million RL and/or 10 years of imprisonment. Furthermore, according to interviews conducted by MyBroadban.co.za, the South African government made it clear that any casino providers breaking the law would be prohibited from filing for a license if/when South Africa did legalize online gambling.

Ok, so where does this leave players? That’s harder to figure out. According to my research it’s clearly illegal. A press release by the National Gambling Board stated that:

According to the NGB, South Africans may also not participate in online gambling, or lotteries organised outside the country, without finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.

However, I haven’t heard of anyone actually getting in trouble for it. Even if the government did decide to enforce the law, do they really want to monitor more than 50 million people and what they do on the internet? And could they?

Either way, it hasn’t stopped online casinos from offering their services to South Africans. With servers outside the jurisdiction of the country there’s not a whole hell of a lot that can be done, at least from what I understand.

So there’s your answer. It’s clearly illegal, but casinos don’t care, and apparently a great deal of players don’t either. So while no one has been arrested, just know that there are risks if you choose to play blackjack online.

Choosing a site is a process. First you need to find a site that accepts players from your country, then you need to determine if the site is safe and reputable. Once everything looks ok then you’ll want to consider the following points:

Currency – Most casinos operate in USD, euros or pounds. You want to try to find a casino that will let you play in Rand. Otherwise you’ll have to deal with currency conversion rates which change daily. This can affect how much you can play with or withdrawal when all things are said and done.

Software – Software is important for a couple of reasons. One, it will affect how you play the games, whether it’s by download, Flash casino, mobile, etc. Two, the software impacts what games and promotions the casino is able to provide.

Bonus Options / Terms – The amount you are able to earn matters — a little. Of course, all things being equal, you’ll want a 100 percent/$500 match offer over a $100 offer, assuming you can take full advantage of it. More importantly, however, are the terms, especially for blackjack players. I’ll take the smaller offer all day long if it’s only got a 40x play through and the closest offer to it is twice the size, but has a 250x play through.

Blackjack Games – This is the entire reason why you’re here. You want to play blackjack. So the ideal casino is going to have several games to choose from. More than that, the best casinos will have variations you can’t find elsewhere, as well as live dealer games, blackjack games available via mobile app, and more.

Ultimately, choosing a site to play blackjack at isn’t complicated. It just takes time and effort. But it’s time and effort well spent, though, as you’ll undoubtedly find a casino you look forward to playing at day in, and day out.